Survival on Mars
INSTRUCTIONS: Below you will find 15 technological innovations from the past year. You are playing the role of an Angel Investor who funds projects for the advancement of society and the human race. For each of the technological innovations below you will:
- Rank order each innovation for its' importance to the process of colonizing Mars.
- Provide your reason for the ranking of each innovation.
- Select 3 innovations that are fundamental to the success of the goal of colonizing Mars and feasible to adapt to the intended purpose of colonizing Mars (these will be the three innovations you will fund, so make sure you can explain your decision making process).
Rank:
Reason: |
Compression Space Suit
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World’s Smallest, Fastest Nanomotor
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Robot Cheetahs and Kangaroos
Scientists at Festo AG of Germany developed a “BionicKangaroo,” that technologically reproduces the unique way a kangaroo moves. Bonus: You can summon it with simple arm gestures! Stateside MIT’s Biomimetic Robotics Laboratory developed “an algorithm for bounding that they’ve successfully implemented in a robotic cheetah.” At the moment it’s clocking in at 10 mph but they expect this same model will eventually reach 30 mph, or about half the speed of a cheetah in the wild. |
Rank:
Reason: |
Significant Increase in Solar Energy Efficiency
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Squid-Inspired Autonomous Camouflage
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Rank: Reason: |
Swarm Robots Mimic Termites; Build Things Without Being Instructed
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Reason: |
Pocket Molecular Detector
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Largest Indoor Farm Built
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Daewoo Morphs Workers into RoboShipBuilders
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Self-Healing Plastic
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Germ-Zapping Robot
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43 Terabits/Sec Data Transfer
The High-Speed Optical Communications team at the Technical University of Denmark set a new record for data transmission this year, passing 43 terabits per second worth of data over a single optical fiber. To put this in perspective, reddit user candiedbug points out: At 43 terabits per second you could download Netflix’s entire 3.14 petabyte library in 9.7 minutes. |
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MacGyver Paradigm
In one experiment, MacGyver completes a rescue scenario with a 100 kg brick object blocking entry to a room and another 100 kg loaded cart. Interestingly, the loaded cart becomes a fulcrum for an arbitrary board to topple the bricks. Then the bricks, which were initially an obstacle, are used as a fulcrum for a lever to pry open the door. Finally the robot uses a wider board to create a bridge and perform the simulated rescue. See video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwwS4YOTbbw |
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Wireless Electricity
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Solar Power can be Generated in the Dark
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Taken and adapted from: Amanda Orson. The 20 Greatest Engineering Feats of 2014. EngineerJobs.com